Venetian type blinds were much more popular in the New World than they ever were in London or Paris. George Washington apparently first took notice of this fashionable new window blind during a visit to Philadelphia in 1787. In a letter to his nephew, George Augustine Washington, he asked for the exact dimensions of the dining room windows " ...that I may get a venetian blind, such as draws up and closes, and expands made here, that others may be made by it at home." In a later correspondence to his nephew George Washington asks that he have the carpenter cut Poplar wood into 4 inch wide lathes and let it begin to dry for the purpose of making wooden blinds.

According to The Presidential Household Account Book, President Washington received additional blinds from Philadelphia and it was probably these that he shipped to Mt. Vernon on March 17 when he departed for home.

There is no account of wooden blinds having been constructed at Mt. Vernon however we may assume that they were based upon Washington's partiality to this new venetian blind.